The Best Neapolitan Pastry Shops

Although I live in Rome, I spend a lot of time down in Naples working on guide books (DK Eyewitness, Time Out, Rough Guide and Fodor’s). That means I eat a lot of meals down there, and just as many desserts. I am a big advocate of skipping dessert at restaurants, and instead heading to a caffe’ or pastry shop for coffee and sweets. In Naples, you are sure to find the best of both. These are some places I love:

Pasticceria Aruta Via Porta San Gennaro, 34. Life-altering pastries and cookies made on the premises. Their baba’ cakes are legendary.

Pasticceria Angelo Carbone Largo Regina Coeli, 4-5. Delicious pastries and coffee in the shadow of the Church of Regina Coeli and its frescoed portico.

Pasticceria Capparelli Via Tribunali, 324-7. Their flakey cornetti (croissants) are the closet you come in Italy to the buttery Parisian variety. It seems Napolean’s occupation of Naples was good for something!